TIME mercilessly flies by. It was 10 years ago yesterday the Republic of Ireland virtually sealed their place at the 2012 European Championships with a thumping 4-0 win over play-off opponents Estonia in Tallinn.
I remember the internet connection in the press box kept dropping and that the entire Irish press corps were saying a decade of the Rosary that their excitable reports from a glorious night in beautiful Tallinn would reach their respective sports desks back in Ireland.
While the press box fretted at the full-time whistle it wasn’t lost on anyone, from out of the corner of their collective eye they watched John Delaney embark on a mad, prancing celebratory charge around the pitch – the people’s chief executive of Irish football.
We all left Tallinn’s serene old town with a warm glow knowing that the Green Army were making a return to a major finals after a 10-year sabbatical.
I go back further than 10 years covering the Ireland team. It’s 20 years now since I was appointed the newspaper’s Republic of Ireland correspondent.
I'd like to think I timed many a good run on the muddy fields of Mallusk Playing Fields in my youth – but none was better than this one.
Just in time to watch Luis Figo versus Ian Harte at the old and creaking Lansdowne Road.
Just in time to watch Roy Keane clatter into the back of Marc Overmars and Jason McAteer become a national treasure with his curling shot that sent Ireland supporters into orbit.
Temple Bar never felt more alive.
My first away trip was a double-header: Cyprus and then on to Barcelona. Sing-alongs in Limassol beach bars, a wander into Camp Nou’s vaunted past and charting the Irish team's progress. This was living.
The sun gleamed the entire time as Mick McCarthy’s men picked up six points on the road.
Of course, McCarthy’s reign was the last great era of Irish football, typified none more so than Roy Keane at his absolute physical peak and driving the team towards World Cup qualification.
Even back then the conversation was gloomy about the future. Probably prematurely gloomy when you think back and survey the last number of years and how far the Republic of Ireland have tumbled down the rankings.
After all, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff were in their prime, the squad was packed with a good number of quality defenders and although they lacked a bit of creativity in midfield – which team didn’t – there were enough work horses around to stay competitive on the international stage and push for another qualification to a major tournament.
Brian Kerr was next in the firing line but he perhaps never got the respect he deserved from both players and supporters and was unfairly cut loose after one full qualification campaign as senior manager.
While Damien Duff’s performances at the 2002 World Cup finals were brilliant, he was arguably even better during Kerr’s reign, to such an extent that the manager likened his best asset to the wizardry of the great George Best.
One of the great laments of Kerr’s short era was his failure to get a tune out of Robbie Keane, and so the 2006 World Cup finals passed them by after the Irish drew a blank in a must-win game against Switzerland in Dublin.
I remember being granted a one-to-one interview with Steve Staunton when he was Ireland manager and leaving the room thinking that he never had the skills set to be one in the first place.
Never before has there been a glitzier unveiling of an Ireland manager than serial Scudetto winner than Giovanni Trapattoni.
He may have endured a disastrous time with his native Italy at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004, but it was felt his legend alone could arrest Ireland’s decline.
Even then, a nation was decrying the quality of the Irish squad – but Shay Given, Richard Dunne, Duff, Robbie Keane and an in-form Aiden McGeady were still knocking around with a squad buttressed by a clutch of reliable professionals in Jonathan Walters, Keith Andrews, Glenn Whelan and Kevin Doyle.
Both Trapattoni and his successor Martin O’Neill deserve immense credit for delivering one qualification apiece during their periods in charge but the football, to a large extent, was joyless.
In my 20 years reporting on the fortunes of the Ireland team, austerity always felt another qualification campaign away.
But there were always just about enough successful campaigns to keep the impending gloom at bay.
But nobody could imagine exactly what austerity looked like on the international stage until Mick McCarthy returned to the fold and recalled journeyman Glenn Whelan – a fervent servant nonetheless – to the midfield engine room.
Austerity, in Irish football terms, had arrived.
No matter how many times he shuffled the deck, the manager’s hand was always bad.
And when you consider the daunting task Stephen Kenny faced into upon taking the senior reins, having to ‘blood’ a high number of inexperienced players, it was always hard to fathom some of the criticism he endured, especially in the midst of a global pandemic and how it became convenient for his detractors to airbrush the COVID-related absentees from his first season and crudely gaze at his winless record.
This World Cup qualification campaign was always going to be Ireland’s House of Pain.
This is what football austerity looks like. It’s a hard road.
But there is some light, and supporters have the League of Ireland to thank, with Gavin Bazunu, Seamus Coleman, Enda Stevens, Matt Doherty, James McClean, Jamie McGrath, Chiedozie Ogbene, Ryan Manning and Daryl Horgan coming through football’s domestic cradle.
In a tumultuous period in Irish football, Stephen Kenny had to rebuild his backroom team and the Irish squad.
He should be given an early indication from the FAI, rather than waiting until next July when his contract expires, that he is indeed the man to steer the ship through austere times.
Last night's scoreless draw with Portugal was more compelling evidence that they have the right man.
